Dolichotachina caudata, Villeneuve, 1914

It can be rather pleasing being me.

Take this fly:

Photographed in Chongwe, Lusaka, Zambia, August 2011. Using an Olympus E-420 DSLR and 3 KOOD magnifiers.

Well, its name is

Dolichotachina caudata

Villeneuve, 1914

And, if, at the time of my writing this, you were to do an image search, you would find that only three images come up that are actually of this species - or even this genus. 

And who, you ask, took those pictures? 

Well, I did. 

I cannot claim to have identified it, or - as you will find if you follow those images to their source - to have known what family it belonged to, before the wonderful members of Paul Beuk's excellent website, Diptera.info, worked it all out for me, but I'm just rather pleased to have contributed... 

Anyway, and without further ado, onwards:

- Miltogramminae

- Sarcophagidae      

- Oestroidea              

- Calyptratae               

- Schizophora                

See also Diasemopsis meigenii

- Muscomorpha                

See also Episyrphus balteatus, Helophilus pendulus and Senaspis haemorrhoa.

- Brachycera                        

- Diptera                                 

See also Megistocera filipes

- Antliophora                             

See also Panorpa germanica

- Panorpida                                   

See also Zebronia phenice, Laelia robusta, Anthocharis cardamines and  Acada biseriata

- Endopterygota                               

See also Hagenomyia tristis, Vespula germanica, Synagris proserpina, Astata tropicalis, Melolontha melolontha, Otiorhynchus atroapterus, Malachius bipustulatus, Demetrias atricapillus and Anthia fornasiini.

- Eumetabola                                       

See also Pephricus, Anoplocnemis curvipes and Ranatra.

- Neoptera                                              

See also  Sibylla, Stictogryllacris punctata and Cyathosternum prehensile

- Manopterygota                                        

See also Rhyothemis semihyalina, Pseudagrion hageni and Enallagma cyathigerum

- Pterygota                                                    

- Dicondylia                                                     

- Insecta                                                               

- Hexapoda                                                             

- Arthropoda                                                              

See also Ligia oceanica, Dicranopalpus ramosus, Enoplognatha ovata, Argiope bruennichi and Hyllus argyrotoxus.

- Ecdysozoa                                                                  

- Protostomia                                                                   

- Nephrozoa                                                                        

See also Chiromantis xerampelina, Thelotornis capensis, Trachylepis varia, Lygodactylus capensis, Ardea goliath, Chalcophaps indica, Sterna hirundo and Hipposideros vittatus.

- Bilateralia                                                                             

- Eumetazoa                                                                               

- Animalia                                                                                       

- Eukaryota                                                                                         

The Miltogramminae, the subfamily to which this lovely fly belongs, are kleptoparasites, usually of solitary wasps (including bees) - that is to say, they are lovable outlaws that make their living by stealing from other insects. But not really in a Robin Hood way, as they are only doing it for selfish reasons. Ah, well. I maintain that anything that sneaks up on a larger insect with a sting and steals food is at least admirably foolish.

That's all, folks. 

As previously mentioned, Diptera.info is an excellent resource for identifying strange flies, largely because it's chock-full of clever people who are interested in flies.